The left worries about the adverse public health effects of the proposed rule, but is hopeful that the energy sector has already begun replacing coal with cheaper alternatives.

The right supports the plan, arguing that the Obama-era CPP was an unconstitutional executive power grab and existing policies are sufficient to protect the environment.

“Because of an increase in a tiny air pollutant known as PM 2.5, which contributes to smog and is linked to asthma and heart disease, the EPA predicts between 470 to 1,400 more deaths... Depending on how aggressively states make efficiency standards for individual power plants, those numbers could decrease.”

Mother Jones

“The Trump administration analysis also found that its plan would see 48,000 new cases of what it described as ‘exacerbated asthma,’ and at least 21,000 new missed days of school annually by 2030 because of an increase of pollutants in the atmosphere.”

“At this point, the marketplace is doing more to cut emissions than the Environmental Protection Agency is... With the price of natural gas, wind and solar power falling steadily, power plant owners have closed or announced plans to close 270 coal plants nationwide — more than half the total — since 2010... The country is on track to lower carbon dioxide emissions 28 percent by 2030, close to the Clean Power Plan target, with no EPA power-sector rules in force.”

The right supports the plan, arguing that the Obama-era CPP was an unconstitutional executive power grab and existing policies are sufficient to protect the environment.

“The [CPP] wasn’t just bad policy — it was also illegal... The Supreme Court immediately recognized the legal flaws of the rule and took the unprecedented step of putting it on hold... It is the states that can best tackle the question of how we reduce emissions without raising people’s electric bills and hurting our economy. The Obama top-down mandate from Washington wasn’t legal and wouldn’t work.”

USA Today

Some point out that “power plant C02 emissions are still estimated to fall under the EPA’s proposal to 33% below 2005 levels by 2030, but without the costs to consumers of the Obama plan. The Trump plan also doesn’t ‘roll back’ Obama-era reductions since the Supreme Court stayed the Clean Power Plan in February 2016 and likely would have struck it down as an abuse of regulatory power.”

Wall Street Journal

It’s also worth noting that under current regulations, “not only are our emissions not going up, but in 2017 we reduced our emissions more than any other developed country in the world... Of all the EU signatories to the Paris climate treaty, not one of them is meeting their current goals for emissions reduction. Only five of them – Luxembourg, Netherlands, France, Portugal and Sweden – are even at 50% of their targets.”

Hot Air

“The CPP's champions were wealthy liberals like Tom Steyer and its victims were the poorest Americans... Lower-income families dedicate a higher portion of their budget to electricity. And if families are forced to pay more in energy bills, they obviously cannot use the lost money on other things... In 2017, the price-per-kilowatt-hour in CPP-supporting California was twice that of its next-door neighbor, Nevada.”